Why bother? and the cheap-energy mentality
You really ought to read this fantastic comment piece from the NYT Magazine Why Bother? by Michael Pollan (author of "In Defense of Food - An Eater's Manifesto".) Not only does he frame the question of how to address the hopelessness of affecting the environment in a positive way in a manner that offers at least a glimmer of hope, but he quotes and thus reminds us of the philosophy of the peerless Wendell Berry. And his conclusion is that if you can only do one thing, the one thing worth doing is what all of y'all are doing: grow your own food. Who'd 'a' thunk it?